1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ecological environment monitoring technology, and more particularly, to a front-end gateway unit which is designed for integration to a remote ecological environment monitoring system that is equipped with a wireless sensor network (WSN) system installed at a remote site (front-end site), such as a farmland or a garden, for the purpose of allowing the WSN system to exchange data with a back-end host server.
2. Description of Related Art
In agricultural research and management, it is an important task to monitor the ecological environment of a farmland used to cultivate crops such as fruits, rice, and vegetables. The main purpose is to collect a set of ecological data that are considered as vital factors that would significantly affect the cultivation and growth of crops on the farmland. These ecological data include, for example, number of clustered pests (such as fruit flies) per unit area, temperature, humidity, sunlight intensity, and wind speed, to name a few. Research personnel can analyze these ecological data for effective management of the farmland to achieve optimized crop production.
Traditionally, the collection of ecological data from farmlands is carried out by human labor work. For example, the number of pests per unit area is collected by firstly using a net to capture a group of pests within a certain area, and then visually counting the total number of pests being captured in the net, and finally using statistical methods to estimate the total number of pests within the entire area. All these works are carried out by human labor. For collection of climate-related ecological data (temperature, humidity, sunlight intensity, wind speed, etc.), this task is traditionally carried out by installing temperature sensors, humidity sensors, sunlight intensity sensors, wind speed sensors on the farmland; and the sensed data are visually inspected and manually recorded by the research/management personnel. The collected ecological data are then analyzed and compiled by the research personnel into written reports. These written reports are then used as references for management of the farmland to achieve optimized crop production. For example, if the number of pests per unit area is considered to be overly large, pest-killing or expelling means should be provided; if temperature/humidity is too high, conditioning means should be installed; and if the wind speed is too high, wind-shielding means should be installed.
One apparent drawback to the labor-based work for ecological data collection is that it is quite tedious, laborious, and time-consuming for the research/management personnel to carry out. Moreover, if the farmland is located at a remote site, such as a distant mountain or rural place, the research/management personnel might have to spend lots of time and cost in the travel to the farmland.